It is often necessary to plate or clad the interior or exterior surfaces of metal components to improve the wearability of such components or to improve the corrosion resistant properties thereof. Commonly a welding apparatus is used to provide the plating or cladding by depositing a weld material such as a welding powder on the surface of the work piece and then machining the welded area to the proper shape to provide a smooth surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,245,155 B2 discloses an apparatus for welding together a plurality of portions of a work piece. The apparatus comprises a powder feed means having a nozzle for depositing a chosen volume of welding powder onto the work piece surface during a welding operation and a laser source for generating a laser beam positioned at a certain distance from the work piece to form a weld bead of a selected width. Disadvantageously, the nozzle has a low yield in terms of supplied powder and the deposit rate on the work piece is limited.